


Touched by an Angel

by HiddenTreasures



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode AU: s03e10 Blink, Episode: s03e10 Blink, F/M, Reunion, Romance, Telepathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-07-27 10:36:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7614742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenTreasures/pseuds/HiddenTreasures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and Rose find themselves unexpectedly and impossibly reunited after they’ve both been sent back in time, thanks to the touch of an angel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks very much to the wonderful chocolatequeennk for beta-ing this for me.
> 
> This also counts for TimePetalsPrompts weekly prompt of "Doomsday".

The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief as the door to the flat clicked shut behind Martha, leaving him once more on his own. It had been nearing on five weeks since they’d been stranded in 1969, and it appeared as though they would be there for a few weeks more, until he could figure out the key to taking them home. Well, bringing home to them, really.

He rubbed his hands wearily across his face. He’d been working nearly non-stop on building a temporal disturbance detector, but it was difficult when he only had the technology of late twentieth century Earth at his disposal, and anything he happened to have in his pockets when they’d gotten stuck there.

He was exhausted, and knew he needed to sleep. It had been nearly three weeks since he’d had a proper sleep, and not just a quick kip on the sofa. But he wasn’t eager for a repeat performance of Martha rushing into his bedroom after hearing him shout himself awake from his latest nightmare. Since then, he’d taken to napping on the couch whenever she was at work.

It was at night, especially, that he missed Rose the most. He missed the feel of her warm little body spooned against his, and the softness of her mind nuzzled against his as it had so often been those last few months. He’d been about to propose to her, and ask her to bond with him completely, when they’d gotten home from Jackie’s. But the day went horribly wrong, and he’d instead gone home alone.

He groaned as he dragged himself out of the spiraling melancholy. He had work to do.

With his newly-finished temporal disturbance detector in hand, he left the flat. Sally Sparrow hadn’t given them an exact date or time of Billy Shipton’s arrival in 1969, unfortunately, but he knew (hoped) it was approaching soon, and so he had taken to patrolling the streets of London, trusting his detector would alert him to Billy’s presence as soon as he arrived.

The late afternoon sun beat on his back as he made his way to a nearby café for a bite to eat. Just as he entered the café, a high-pitched squealing noise reverberated around the small eatery, and his temporal disturbance detector whizzed in his pocket.

He turned around and rushed out of the shop, nearly bowling over an elderly couple in his haste. He blurted out an apology as he rifled through his pockets for the detector.

“HA!” he shouted in glee as he finally found it.

He spun around in a circle, trying to orient himself in the direction the detector was pointing. Finally, the navigation bar was pointing straight ahead, and he took off at a sprint. He soon recognized the detector was leading him to the alleyway where he and Martha had landed after the Weeping Angels touched them.

“Right, don’t panic,” he called as he turned off the main street and into the alley. “You’re fine, just a bit of head rush from time travel without a capsule. Nasty business. I don’t recommend it. But you’ll be fine by teatime. You must be—” The Doctor froze. He had been expecting a man, not a woman. The woman was wobbly on her feet with her hands braced against a brick wall. She finally succeeded in turning around, and the Doctor’s hearts lodged in his throat as he saw a face he hadn’t seen in nearly eleven months. “Rose,” he wheezed.

“Doctor?” she asked, her voice warbling with uncertainty.

And then he was moving. He was vaguely aware of the clattering sound of his temporal disturbance detector hitting the ground, and a piece of his brain chastised him, telling him he would need to repair it, but the rest of his brain was louder, moving his muscles towards Rose.

Rose was standing still, a combination of vertigo and disbelief, even as the Doctor rushed towards her. But when he shouted her name with a huge grin on his face, her body took over and carried her towards him.

They crashed together, and the Doctor swept her up in a hug that lifted her off her feet. He buried his face into her neck as he whispered her name reverently. Oh, he’d _missed_ her!

“Rose, my Rose,” he murmured.

He breathed her in. She smelled like apples and cinnamon, different from the eucalyptus and mint he was expecting, but beneath the apple cinnamon, beneath the metallic tang of energy, he smelled that achingly familiar scent of Time that was unique to Rose, the smell that reminded him of home.

“Doctor,” she whispered, clutching at the back of his suit. “Oh, it’s you! It’s really you! Oh, God! I landed and saw the TARDIS, and I couldn’t believe I’d made it back. But then the TARDIS disappeared and I think I went unconscious for a few minutes and I’d feared I’d been taken back to that other universe! I was so scared!”

He felt her breathing hitch as his neck grew damp with her tears, and he held her tighter. She must’ve been touched by a Weeping Angel, too, and he thanked every deity there ever was that she had been touched by the same angel that had touched him and Martha. He shuddered at the thought that she could have made it home, only to be sent back to a different time, and he would never have known.

“You’re here,” he whispered, setting her back on her feet. He kept her in his arms and rocked them from side to side as he pressed his lips to the side of her head. “You’re here.”

“Told you I’d never leave you,” Rose said, her voice thin and trembling with tears.

“But… how?”

Rose sniffled and pulled away to look up at him. The Doctor didn’t let her get very far as he kept his hands on her hips. His thumbs slipped under the leather jacket she was wearing and he stroked the soft material of her t-shirt, shivering as her warmth seeped through the fabric and into his fingertips.

“A dimension cannon,” she said, snaking a hand down the front of her jacket. She pulled out a yellow disk so reminiscent of the dimension hopper he’d last seen eleven months ago, and the reminder made him shudder. He took it from her and gingerly turned it around in his hands, not wanting to press a button and accidentally send one of them back through the Void. “It won’t work anymore. We programed it to find weak points in the walls of the dimension. We figured out a way for the cannon to brace the gaps until I could get through, and then to automatically seal the walls behind me. It was a one-way trip. I used my TARDIS key to hone in on this universe. Gonna need a new key, though. Well, I mean, if I can—if you still want—?”

The Doctor chuckled at the absurdity of her question.

“Of course, love,” he assured, leaning down to press his lips to her forehead and relishing the solid warmth of her skin beneath his lips. “Just as soon as we actually get back to the TARDIS.”

“Yeah.” She looked up at him with a furrowed brow and a wrinkled nose, and his hearts ached at the familiar expression. “So what exactly happened, anyway? Where are we?”

The Doctor explained to Rose the Weeping Angels as he tucked her hand in his and walked back to where his temporal disturbance detector lay on the ground. He frowned at the bits and bobs that had come loose, but overall, it didn’t look too bad. He should be able to fix it up easily enough, and now, thanks to Rose, he knew it worked.

“What’s that?”

“It’s designed to detect any temporal anomalies in the area,” he said, pocketing the device and the few loose pieces. “I was looking for a bloke called Billy Shipton. Sally Sparrow said he’d be popping by soon.”

Rose was looking at him blankly, and the Doctor said, “I can explain when we get to the flat. It’s a bit of a long story.”

He swung their joined hands lightly between them as he guided them back to his and Martha’s flat. He pushed open the door and invited Rose in.

“So, are you here alone?” she asked, feigning nonchalance but failing miserably.

“No, I’m here with my friend Martha,” he said, adding emphasis to the word _friend_.

“And where is she?” Rose asked curiously, glancing around. The flat was in disarray, with bits and bobs of metal and wire strewn across the floor of the living room. It definitely looked like the Doctor had made himself at home, but it didn’t appear as though a second occupant lived here, much less a woman.

“Ehm, well, she’s at work,” the Doctor said sheepishly, scrubbing his hand across the back of his neck. “We’ve been stuck here for just over four weeks, and needed a source of money…”

The Doctor trailed off as Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head at him, but he could see the fondness in her eyes.

“So, what about you?” the Doctor asked before she could tell him off. “What have you been up to? Tell me more about this dimension cannon. Oh, and as soon as we get the TARDIS back, I’m giving you a full check-up.”

“Doctor, I’m fine,” she said.

“You’ve blasted yourself across the Void wearing nothing but the clothes on your back,” he said flatly. “It should have been impossible.”

Rose cocked her eyebrow and gestured to herself.

“Apparently not,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

The Doctor couldn’t help but follow the trajectory of her hands, and he let his eyes wander up and down her lean body, drinking in every inch, every curve, every flex of muscle. Gods, he’d missed her.

His throat swelled shut as he was nearly overwhelmed by his emotions, but beneath his fear and disbelief and awe, there was a love so complete and eternal, he was startled by its intensity.

He leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. He felt the muscles of her cheek twitch into a smile, and he peppered a series of light kisses around her mouth but never on her lips, taking great pleasure in the ability to be able to touch her once more.

But apparently Rose’s patience had worn thin.

“Tease,” she muttered before she cupped his cheeks and angled their faces so that their lips finally, blissfully, met head-on.

A moan bubbled deep in his chest as their lips molded together for the first time in eleven months. His memory had not done this justice; kissing Rose Tyler was the most amazing, fantastic, pleasurable thing he’d ever done in all of his lives, and he didn’t think he would ever be able to stop.

He slowly turned them and began walking backwards in the general vicinity of the sofa. His knees bumped against the edge of the cushions, and he sank down gratefully, tugging Rose on top of him. She tucked her knees on either side of his hips, straddling him fully as she buried her hands in his hair. He shivered as her nails scraped his scalp and her teeth nibbled at his bottom lip. Never before had there been a kiss of such pleasure. He was intoxicated, and needed more.

He fumbled with the zipper on her jacket, yanking it down before shoving it off her shoulders. He dipped his hands under the hem of her shirt until his palms met with the bare skin of her back as his mouth left hers to explore her neck. He nibbled and sucked at the column of her throat before he nuzzled aside her shirt collar to nip at the skin where her neck met her shoulder. That had always been one of her more intense erogenous zones, and it still was, if her breathy moans were anything to go by. He stifled a groan against her skin as he pulled her hips closer.

Just as he was about to tug Rose’s top off of her, he heard a key jiggling in the lock moments before the door swung open.

“Slow day at the shops, my manager gave me the— _what the bloody hell are you doing?!_ ”

“Bollocks,” he hissed, forcing his hands out of Rose’s top as he swiftly worked on redirecting his blood flow to get rid of his rather prominent erection.

Rose was flushing a brilliant red as she scrambled off his lap and onto the seat beside him before she ran her fingers through her disheveled hair. Martha, meanwhile, was still staring at them with a mixed look of anger and resentment.

“Martha, it’s not what you think,” the Doctor said calmly, standing up to walk towards his friend.

“I've been working my arse off to support yours, and all you've been doing is playing around with the locals!” Martha yelled, oblivious to the Doctor’s growing anger. “First that blonde matron, now this blonde chav. I mean, is this what you—”

“Martha Jones, that is enough!” he interrupted. He felt a muscle in his jaw twitch as a prickle of agitation zinged across his scalp. “I know you’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I know this isn’t what you imagined space and time travel to be like. And I don’t know what gave you the idea, but this isn’t some-some girl I picked up for a bit of fun. D’you really think I would do something like that?”

Martha had the decency to look a bit chagrined. She watched in amazement as the blonde girl stood from the sofa and placed her hand on the Doctor’s upper arm. He glanced over at her, and the muscles of his face all relaxed into a serene little smile Martha had never seen before. He covered her hand with his before turning back to Martha.

“Martha,” he said softly, “I’d like to introduce you to Rose Tyler. Rose, this is Martha Jones.”

“Rose?” Martha asked incredulously. “Your Rose?”

He felt his cheeks heat up, but he couldn’t help the daft little grin on his face.

“Yeah,” he whispered, “my Rose.”

Heedless of the tension in the room, the Doctor reached for Rose's hand. He sighed when her fingers slotted perfectly in the spaces between his. He didn't care about the lingering embarrassment—Rose was home after eleven months, and he'd be damned if he was going to avoid her just because it made Martha uncomfortable.

Martha’s gaze flickered between the two of them, and she finally sighed. “You know what, there’s a pub that just opened up down the street. I think I’ll eat dinner there. I’ll see you two later, yeah?”

“You don’t need to leave,” Rose protested, feeling badly for kicking Martha out of her home.

Martha snorted. “Oh, no. I definitely just interrupted something, and I’m not too keen on seeing or hearing it continue.”

The Doctor’s face burned, and he wished the carpet would open up beneath his trainers and swallow him whole. Though he had to admit, he was eternally grateful that she had arrived when she did, instead of a few minutes later…

“No,” Martha continued, “I’m going out for a few hours. I’ll be back at around ten, mind you, I’ve got the early shift tomorrow.”

oOoOo

The Doctor made an early supper for him and Rose while they waited for Martha to leave, even though neither of them were really hungry. They shared a turkey sandwich while the Doctor showed Rose the file Sally Sparrow had given to him a few months ago, and explained his plan to bring the TARDIS back to them.

As the Doctor finished explaining the nuances of leaving Easter eggs on DVDs for Sally and Larry to find, Martha emerged fresh from the shower.

“I’ll be back at ten,” she reminded pointedly, grabbing her keys and purse. The Doctor nodded in recognition, even as heat crept up his neck.

With that, they were alone. Despite having nearly shagged Rose on the sofa barely an hour ago, the Doctor didn’t quite know what to do now. Oh, he knew what he _wanted_ to do. He wanted to scoop her up, take her to his bed, and make love to her for the next several eternities. He wanted to bury himself in her in every way possible, if she would let him, and never leave.

But what did she want?

“So,” Rose murmured, breaking the heavy silence that had descended. “Martha. She’s…”

“Yeah,” he said apologetically. “She’s brilliant. But I don’t really want to talk about her right now.”

“Oh?” Rose asked, mischief glinting in her eyes. “And what would you like to talk about instead?”

The Doctor returned her playful smile as he stood up from the table. He quickly put their dishes in the sink before he returned to her.

“I’d rather not talk about much of anything,” he whispered into her ear, delighting in her shudder. “That all right?”

“Yeah,” she breathed, standing. She looped her arms around his neck and brought her lips a hairsbreadth away from his. “Take me to bed, Doctor.”

“With pleasure.”

He wrapped an arm around her shoulders while his other arm stooped behind her knees to better gather her into his arms. She shrieked as she was lifted and carried, bridal-style, to the room at the end of the hall.

“Get the door for me, love?” he asked.

She reached out and unlatched the door for them, giggling still as the Doctor carried her in and kicked the door shut behind him. He carefully set her on her feet again, barely letting her get her balance before he placed his hands on her hips and walked her backwards until her body thudded loudly against the closed door. He buried a hand in her hair to tilt her head up to catch her lips between his.

She sighed into the kiss and automatically parted her lips for him. He swept his tongue into her mouth without prompting, moaning at the taste and feel of her as she pressed her body deliciously against his. He dropped a hand to the hem of her shirt and swept his hand up to feel the ripple of her ribs as she squirmed in his arms.

The Doctor broke away from the kiss long enough to tug her shirt over her head, before his lips crashed back against hers. He pressed frantic kisses across her lips then down her jaw, wanting to taste every inch of skin he’d been deprived of for nearly a year.

She moaned into the kiss as her fingers fumbled with his tie. She slipped the silky fabric off his neck, letting it fall to the floor by their feet before she began tackling the buttons of his suit and oxford. She got everything unbuttoned, but couldn’t slip them from his shoulders, as his arms were wrapped tightly around her waist as his hands groped her bum.

“Doctor,” she murmured, pressing her hips forward to try and put a bit of space between them. It had the opposite effect. He groaned into her shoulder as his fingers squeezed her arse, clutching her tightly to rock his hips into hers.

She sighed and tilted her head back against the door, content with letting him kiss her neck as she rested her palms on the bare skin of his chest.

It took a few minutes and a few tries before she managed to free one of his hands long enough to drop the fabric of his suit jacket and oxford down his arms. He finally realized what she was doing, and he grudgingly took his other hand off her bum to pull his jacket and shirt off completely.

While his hands and mouth were momentarily off of her, Rose decided this would be the best time to get her trousers off. As she wriggled her jeans to the carpet, she was pleased to note he had copied her, and soon they were both in their underwear.

“You missed a few pieces,” the Doctor whispered letting his eyes skate up and down her almost naked body as he stepped closer. He returned his lips to the reddened skin of her neck as he trailed his fingers from the cups of her bra down to her knickers.

“Mmm, so did you,” she noted, dipping her fingers under the waistband of his pants to scrape her nails across his bum.

He shuddered violently and arched his hips against hers.

“Travesty,” he panted, reaching around to undo the clasp of her bra.

He leaned back far enough to allow gravity to drop the scrap of fabric to the floor, his eyes glazing over as her breasts were finally bared to him.

They both made quick work of their pants, and the Doctor spun her around and walked her backwards until the back of her legs hit the edge of the mattress. She shimmied her way up the bed to recline against his pillows, her cheeks heating up in an uncharacteristic shyness as she was bared to him for the first time in almost three years.

“You’re beautiful,” he choked out, and any insecurities she felt faded away.

He slowly crawled on top of her, kissing his way from her shin, up her thighs, across her belly and around both breasts, leaving her panting and aching for more.

“Doctor,” she breathed, trailing her hands up and down his ribs. “Doctor, please.”

“Anything, my love,” he murmured, nuzzling his nose against her collarbone.

Her muscles stiffened minutely, and the Doctor glanced up at her in worry.

“Anything?” she verified, resting her hands overtop his hearts. At his nod, she lifted her shaking hands until they were hovering just inches from his temples. He sucked in a sharp breath, barely daring to hope. “Then can we… Like we used to? Please?”

“Oh, yes,” he breathed, his hearts hammering in desire and anticipation.

He tilted his head to the side so that her fingertips met with the skin of his left temple as he braced himself on his elbows to touch his fingertips to her temples. His mind sparked with light he hadn’t seen in nearly a year, and he sobbed in pleasure as the familiar warmth of her mind embraced him. Every aching piece of his mind was soothed by hers, and he quickly reciprocated, seeing the pain of the last three years in her mind.

“It’s been three years?” he asked brokenly. She nodded, trying to blink away the sudden tears. “Oh, Rose. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“S’okay,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him closer to she could nuzzle him physically and mentally. “Doesn’t matter now. What matters is I’m back. I’m never leaving you. I love you. Please Doctor, I need you. Please make love to me.”

How could he refuse? He rested his forehead against hers as he slipped deeply into her, body and soul.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to chocolatequeennk for being an excellent sounding board to bounce ideas off of and for beta-ing this!
> 
> Also, this chapter gets the rating of mature... there is a tiny little nsfw scene at the end when they bond.

When Rose awoke the next morning, she was groggy, warm, and comfortable, a rarity of late. She rolled over, too relaxed to get out of bed yet, and her face met with warm, soft skin. She wrenched open her eyes and was greeted by a pale chest and fingers moving her hair from her face.

“All right, love?”

Her breath whooshed out of her lungs as she nuzzled her cheek into the Doctor’s chest and wrapped her arm tightly around his waist.

“Thought I must’ve dreamt it all,” she whispered, breathing him in deeply.

“Nope, not a dream, Rose Tyler,” he said, leaning down to brush his lips across her forehead. “You’re really here.”

Rose shivered as he traced his fingertips across the contours of her face. Her skin tingled at every place he touched, and his mind buzzed warmly around hers. Even in her sleep, she must have been aware of his presence because it was the best night’s sleep she’d had in years.

His lips followed the path his fingers had just taken, and she smiled serenely as he peppered soft kisses across her forehead, down to her cheek, across her nose and to the other cheek, down and around her jaw before finally settling atop her lips. She sighed happily and cupped her hand around the back of his neck to deepen the kiss.

As she sucked his bottom lip into her mouth, a loud clatter tore them from their moment. _Bugger._ She had completely forgotten about Martha.

“Later,” she promised.

She sat up and shivered as the cooler air of their bedroom hit her sleep-warmed skin.

“Can I use your shower?” she asked, finally feeling the grime of the last twenty-four hours.

“Of course,” he said. “First door to the left. I’ll even clean your clothes for you until we can find you something else to wear.” He dragged his eyes up and down her nude form, recommitting her to memory and taking note of the differences those three years had made to her body. “Though, I must admit, I do prefer you like this and wouldn’t object if you stayed like that for the rest of the day.”

He waggled his eyebrows playfully at her, and she couldn’t help but giggle. It was a relief to see him so light and happy, and the contentedness he was projecting warmed her to her core.

“Martha is still here,” she pointed out.

“Yeah, but she has to work today,” he said. “She’ll be gone in thirty, forty minutes.”

She climbed out of bed and slipped on his discarded oxford. With her luck, she’d run into Martha in the hall and she would rather not be completely naked. As she buttoned his shirt up over her breasts, she heard his sharp intake of breath, and the happiness he had been projecting quickly gave way to arousal and desire.

“Wait. How come I can still feel you?” she asked curiously, gesturing to her head. His presence wasn’t as strong as it had been when they were touching, but usually their connection disappeared completely when they stopped touching. Now it felt as though he were still standing beside her, echoing weakly through her mind.

His cheeks tinged pink and she felt the faint impression of him start to fade away.

“No!” she cried. She stepped towards him with her hand outstretched, as though that would keep him there. “No, you don’t need to go. It feels nice with you there. I was just wondering, is all.”

“Well, I went a bit deeper into your mind last night than typical,” he admitted. “Deeper than I’ve ever gone before. It will take a little longer for our minds to completely separate, but in a few hours, we should be back to normal.”

Rose chewed on her lip. “Does it have to? Be completely separated?”

The Doctor’s jaw slackened. “Ehm, no, it doesn’t have to,” he said, scratching his neck. “Actually… There’s this thing… I wanted… Before Jackie’s… We could…”

Even if she hadn’t felt him in her mind, she could’ve plainly seen his frustration and nervousness. She walked back over to him and sat down on the bed beside him to take his hand, hoping to calm his sudden nerves.

“Telepathic intimacy is a powerful thing,” he murmured to their joined hands. “Even the basic connections we’ve made are more than what many Gallifreyans had done. But it can get deeper. More powerful. More intimate.”

Rose stroked her thumb over the back of his, feeling the tremor in his hands and the nerves he was trying not to project. She rested her head against his shoulder as she waited patiently for him to finish his thought.

“Bonding,” he finally blurted. “It’s an unbreakable telepathic connection between two people. Or more than two. To each their own. So far, what we’ve shared is an ephemeral link. Fleeting, easy to enter in and exit from. Requires touching. Well, with a few temporary exceptions, like I just said. But a full bond—a-a _marriage_ bond, that’s what my people called it—well, it’s… it’d be… we’d… our minds would completely be intertwined. Forever. Can’t be undone.”

Rose’s intuition sparked.

“And-and would you maybe want something like that with me?” she asked, willing her voice to sound stronger than she felt.

“Yes,” he said immediately, finally looking up at her. His eyes were wide and dark and Rose could see the yearning in them. “But only if you’d want it.”

Rose didn’t know what to say.

“You don’t have to decide now,” he whispered after a few minutes of silence. “And you don’t need to say yes. I’m okay with what we have now.”

“Hey, I haven’t said no,” Rose said, lifting his chin to look in his eyes. “It’s just a lot to process, that’s all. You said Martha would be gone in a half hour? We can talk more about it when she leaves. That’ll give me time to sort my thoughts.”

He nodded and continued staring at his hands, trying not to project his hurt and uncertainty, even after she left to shower. As she pointed out, she wasn’t saying no. _Yet._

Rose showered quickly, using this time alone to run through the information he had just given her. His mental presence was fading by the minute, and she found herself dreading the moment he would be completely gone. She loved having him in her mind. But did she want him there every minute of every day?

A faint tremor of happiness—his happiness—rippled at the base of her skull and suddenly she knew, without a doubt, that she wanted to bond with him. She wanted more information first, but she couldn’t think of anything he could say that would make her refuse him.

She wrapped herself in a towel and walked back to his bedroom. Her clothes were laid out on the bed for her, with the exception of her shirt, which he was still running the sonic over.

“Thanks for this,” she said before dropping the towel to put on her underwear.

She barely straightened the straps of her bra before his hands were at her hips and he was catching her lips between his. She moaned into the kiss, automatically wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I’ve missed you, Rose,” he murmured against her mouth. “Stay here with me?”

“Can’t,” she sighed as his hands moved restlessly across her back. Wait. Why couldn’t they? A clatter from the kitchen redirected her focus. “Martha.”

“She’ll be gone in just a little bit,” he whispered.

“I want to catch her before she leaves,” Rose insisted, pushing lightly against his chest. “I want to talk to her. To apologize.”

That caught the Doctor's attention.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said firmly.

“All the same, it can’t be easy for Martha, having me here,” Rose said.

The Doctor furrowed his brow, and Rose rolled her eyes.

“You really haven’t noticed?” The Doctor blinked at her. “She fancies the pants off you.”

The Doctor’s cheeks reddened, and his gaze dropped to the floor.

“Ah, yes, I did notice that.”

“And you didn’t tell her that-that we—?”

“I tried!” he interrupted. “And I thought she understood! She even said she wasn’t interested! But after a while… well… I didn’t know how to dissuade her any more than I already had, so I just…”

“Ignored it,” Rose finished softly. _Daft man._

He lifted a shoulder helplessly. Rose pressed her lips to his temple, making them both shiver when their telepathic impressions deepened slightly.

Rose reluctantly pulled away from the Doctor when she realized she had wasted about twenty minutes of the thirty to forty before Martha left for work.

“I suppose I ought to get up too,” the Doctor groaned, rubbing a hand over his stomach as they both heard it growl. “Worked up a bit of an appetite last night.”

Rose giggled as he waggled his eyebrows, and she rolled her eyes fondly at him before turning and exiting their room.

She steeled herself for what was sure to be an awkward conversation. She rounded the corner to the kitchen, and saw Martha sitting at the table eating a plate of toast.

“Morning,” Rose said lightly.

Martha looked up. “Morning. Kettle should still be hot, if you wanted tea or something.”

Rose smiled gratefully and quickly moved around the kitchen to make herself some tea, with Martha directing her on where she could find a mug and the sugar. A splash of milk and spoon-tip of sugar later, Rose settled at the table across from Martha.

A heavy silence settled between them.

“Look, about yesterday—”

“I just wanted to say—”

They both giggled, and some of the tension evaporated.

“I want to apologize for what I said yesterday,” Martha said. “I was frustrated, but that wasn’t an excuse to take it out on you. Or the Doctor. It’s just… He was always talking about you, y’know? Like, _oh, Rose would know_ , and _I wish Rose were here,_ and _Rose would’ve loved this_. He spoke about you as though you were some sort of goddess, and when I met you…”

Martha trailed off awkwardly, realizing there was no good ending to that sentence.

“Weren’t expecting a chav off the Estates, were you?” Rose asked wryly.

Martha’s cheeks darkened as she dropped her eyes to the table. “I didn’t mean…”

“No, it’s fine,” Rose said honestly. “I don’t quite get it either. He’s a Time Lord, and I’m just…”

“Brilliant.” Rose gasped as she turned her head to the door. _How long has he been standing there?_ Long enough, apparently, if the stormy look in his eye was any indication.

“You are absolutely brilliant, Rose Tyler,” he said, walking up to her. He pressed his lips to the top of her head; a thrill shot through Rose at his open display of affection. “Don’t ever think otherwise, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

He must have been staring at Martha, because Rose watched her cheeks darken further as she wrapped her hands around her mug until the skin of her knuckles stretched tight.

The kitchen was filled with an awkward silence as the Doctor made himself tea and toast. Rose watched him move around the small kitchen, and more than once caught herself staring at his bum. The Doctor must’ve noticed, because he smirked at her knowingly, before he retreated to the living room with his breakfast, temporal disturbance detector tucked under his arm.

“I gotta go to work,” Martha finally mumbled. She couldn’t quite connect the idea of the Doctor in her head with this new, lighthearted, in-love Doctor that was now present.

She sighed and stood, placing her dishes in the sink, and was about to step out of the kitchen when she turned back around and looked at Rose. “Oh. What did you want to say earlier?”

“Hmm?” Rose furrowed her brow for a moment before her eyes lit up in understanding. “Oh! I just wanted to thank you, is all. For being there for him. He doesn’t do well on his own.”

Martha nodded grimly; even in the time she had been with him, there were times he hadn’t been doing well, and had shown no consideration for his life. She couldn’t imagine the Doctor being without someone to keep him grounded.

“I’m really glad you’re here, Rose,” Martha said honestly. “He and I… Well, let’s just say you’re really good for him. I didn’t realize how much until now.”

Rose smiled softly, and Martha returned it before she gathered her purse and keys and exited the flat.

Rose stood up and walked to the kitchen sink filled with dishes from last night’s supper and today’s breakfast. She turned on the hot water tap and squirted dish soap into the sink, washing each item carefully as her mind turned over the proposition the Doctor had made her. He was nearly gone from her mind now, and she felt empty and aching without him there.

After every dish and utensil was washed, dried, and put away, Rose walked into the living room, where the Doctor was sprawled on the sofa with his temporal disturbance detector in his lap. His mug of tea was empty, and only the crusts remained of his toast.

He looked up at her when she entered, and he smiled brightly at her before he set his feet on the floor and nodded to the space beside him, encouraging her to sit. She did and contented herself to watching him fix the device in silence.

As he worked, he quietly narrated what each piece did and where he’d found it, and Rose thought she had never felt happier. She leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.

“Love you,” she whispered.

He made a happy humming noise deep in his throat as he said, “And I love you.”

He returned his attention back to the detector and fiddled with a loose spring as he asked “So, have you given any more thought to what I said earlier?”

“I have,” Rose said carefully.

The spring finally slipped back into place and the Doctor snapped the cover back onto the detector, before he placed it on the coffee table.

“And?” he prompted finally turning to look at her.

Rose chewed on her bottom lip as her mind snagged on something that Martha had said.

“Who was the ‘blonde matron’ Martha mentioned yesterday?” she asked.

The Doctor blinked at the non-sequitur. He was about to give one of his flippant answers—‘nobody’, or ‘it doesn’t matter’—but that wasn’t fair to Rose or to Joan. So he took in a breath and held it for a few long seconds before he blew it out noisily and began telling her the story of his time as a human in 1913.

Rose listened as he recounted the Family and what he did to hide himself from them. He told her how he had believed himself to be completely human, one who was mourning the loss of his fiancée, and so when he had found a fellow widower, he considered them kindred spirits. Until his human self was suddenly falling for Joan.

“She’d lost her husband, and I’d lost my… well, you… and it felt good to not be hurting all the time,” he admitted quietly. “My human self was in love. He loved Joan, would have courted her and married her.”

He stared at his hands as he braced for Rose’s anger or hurt or disbelief. Instead, he felt her arm wrap around his shoulders and tug him in for a hug. He went willingly, and returned the embrace fiercely, taking solace in her arms.

“Thank you for telling me,” Rose whispered into his ear. “I’m sorry that happened. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“You’re not angry?” Rose shook her head. “Or upset?” She shook her head again.

“Should I be?” she asked, pulling back. She angled her body to face his and rested her arm on the back of the sofa as she stroked her fingers through his hair. “You didn’t intend for any of that to happen. It just sort of… happened. I wasn’t there, and you weren’t you, not really. It wasn’t your fault, and I don’t blame you for any of it.”

The Doctor let out a heavy breath, and Rose was amazed to see all of his muscles relax as he leaned into her soothing touch.

“Were you really that nervous to tell me about her?” Rose asked, feeling a little hurt that he had been scared to tell her something. He shrugged, and nuzzled closer to her hand, which had stopped petting his hair. “If I hadn’t asked, would you have ever told me about it?”

The Doctor sat up straight and looked Rose in the eye.

“Yes,” he said truthfully. “Bondmates don’t keep secrets from each other. One way or another, I would’ve told you. That is, if you agreed to a bond?”

His anxiety was back, because she still hadn’t given him an indication whether she wanted one or not.

“What would it mean, to be bonded?”

He pushed aside his impatience, wanting to know her answer, but he understood her desire for all of the facts before she made her decision. It would be forever, and he didn’t want her to take it lightly, but it was becoming exceedingly difficult for him to remain neutral and not let her know how utterly desperate he was for a telepathic bond. Oh, he didn’t need one, but he very much wanted one.

“I would be in your head all the time, and you would be in my head all the time,” he began, rubbing his clammy palms against his trousers. “It would be more intense, more intimate, than the temporary bonds we’ve shared in the past. There would be no way to undo this sort of bond. It can only be broken by… if one of us were to… if…”

The Doctor clenched his jaw; he just got Rose back, and the idea of her death was something he didn’t care to think about.

Rose understood what he’d been trying to say, and she reached across to smooth her hand across his, hoping to offer him comfort as she forced herself to ask, “And what would happen if one of us dies? What happens to the bond?”

He stiffened and flipped his hand over to hold hers tightly.

“It would break,” he whispered. “The piece of your bondmate’s mind that is living in your mind would be gone. It would be like having a lobotomy. A piece of your mind would be forever gone, and nothing would be able to fill the hole it would leave.”

Rose’s heart ached at the thought that after a few decades, she would leave him alone with a broken bond. As much as she wanted to bond with him, she didn’t think she would be able to cause him that sort of pain.

“Rose?” he asked after she had been silent for a full minute.

“You know I love you,” she said, stroking her fingers through his hair as if the action could soften the blow of her rejection.

The Doctor’s heart plummeted anyway, hearing what she wasn’t saying.

“But you don’t want it,” he whispered, feeling a little sick to his stomach. He sniffed and turned away from her, trying to school his expression and tell himself that it was okay, he didn’t need to have a bond with Rose.

But he had really, truly thought she would say yes. He had gotten his hopes up, and now they were crashing down around him, and it hurt.

“It’s not that I don’t want it,” she said.

He felt her lay a hand on his shoulder and squeeze lightly, but he couldn’t look at her yet; he didn’t want to make her feel guilty for her decision. “It’s fine,” he said, but his voice sounded clipped even to his ears, and he knew Rose would never believe him. “Really. It’s fine. I don’t need it.”

“But you want it,” Rose said, wanting to offer him some sort of comfort. She knew she had just hurt him deeply.

He finally looked at her as he nodded. The tense set of his jaw and his slightly shining eyes made Rose feel even worse.

“How could you though?” she asked, feeling torn. “In just a few decades, I’ll be dead, and you’ll be in so much pain because of me.”

He smiled wryly. “I’d be in pain either way, love.” Human lives were so short, so fleeting…

The Doctor’s hearts lurched as he just remembered one of the side effects of bonding, the most important aspect that might be able to assuage Rose’s fear of leaving him with a broken bond.

He took in a calming breath and said, “It-it might not be a few decades.”

Rose raised a confused eyebrow and nodded for him to continue.

“Ehm. Well.” He tugged on his ear. “You-you know that I’m bonded with the TARDIS. That’s also a permanent and unbreakable bond. It ties me to her forever; our lives are tied together. She is what allows me to regenerate. And… well… a marriage bond would tie you to me in every way… including… you’d…”

“You mean I’d live as long as you would?” Rose asked, her eyes widening.

He nodded, not daring to hope. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten the most important part of what bonding meant.

The Doctor looked up at her as he tried to sort out his paradoxical emotions. On one hand, he hated that Rose would be subjected to centuries of potential loss and hurt. One the other hand, it would also mean centuries of happiness and excitement and adventures. And he would never be alone again, and neither would she. They truly would have forever together, and the thought made his stomach flip in anticipation.

He tried to curb his enthusiasm; she still hadn’t said yes yet.

“So, what do you think?” he asked nervously. “I-I know it’s a lot. You don’t need to give me an answer today. I can wait as long as you need. Or you don’t even have to agree to it. That’s okay too.”

“But you want a bond with me,” Rose stated.

The Doctor nodded.

“Well then. If you want to bond with me,” Rose said, a slow smile creeping over her lips, “and I want to bond with you, there’s really no need to wait, is there?”

“You want…?” he croaked, feeling his hearts stutter a few beats before racing in his chest.

Upon seeing her smile and nod, he crowed in delight. He took his hand away from hers in order to open his arms for a hug, one that she eagerly returned. She laughed in delight as he tugged at her until she was straddling his lap.

He pressed his lips to every inch of her he could reach, murmuring litanies of her name and his thanks into her skin.

He finally slotted his lips over hers in a sloppy kiss meant to show his appreciation and love.

“So how do we do this?” Rose asked against his mouth.

The Doctor popped his mouth from hers and rested his forehead against hers. Rose shivered as the fading impression of him in her mind solidified slightly.

“Are you sure?” he asked, settling his hands on her hips.

“Yes,” she whispered, cradling his cheeks in her hands. “I promised you forever three years ago, and now you’re offering me a way to actually give it to you. I don’t want you to be alone anymore, and I don’t want to be alone again either.”

The Doctor tried to swallow the lump in his throat as he skated his hands up her body until his fingertips rested gently on the skin of her temples. Her presence deepened in his mind, but that was only the beginning.

“Okay,” he whispered. “Ready?”

She nodded and mirrored his position with her hands.

“It’ll be like every other time,” he instructed, falling into her beautiful mind with ease. He shuddered as he was immediately enveloped by her warmth. The Doctor felt overwhelmed and in awe that such a magnificent, beautiful, loving woman could want someone like him.

“I do,” she murmured reverently, “I want you and love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” he said raggedly.

They soon reached the depths of each other’s minds they’d already been, but the Doctor coaxed her to go deeper as he carefully navigated his way through her mind.

“This is it,” he whispered as he reached deepest point in her mind he could go. “I’ll initiate the permanent bond. Just… stay open to me.”

“Always,” she whispered, already reaching out for him.

He gasped at the intensity of emotions he was feeling, both his and hers, and he never thought he’d ever felt happier and more in love with her.

He found her timeline easily, and he resolutely ignored how short it was. It wouldn’t be for much longer. He wrapped himself around it, incorporating it into his very being, making her one with him. He threaded her timeline with his, and watched it pulse strongly between his own and the TARDIS’s, stretching farther than he could see.

 _Part one done,_ he whispered. _Your timeline is now bound to mine and the TARDIS’s._

_What’s the next part?_

He pushed impossibly deeper into her mind, wincing as he felt her discomfort.

 _Sorry, this part isn’t particularly pleasant,_ he apologized. _But you need to go deeper into my mind, love. I know it feels like you can’t, but you really can. This is the part where our minds will fuse permanently. But we have to work together._

 _We’re already so good at that,_ she teased. Then she sobered. _I feel like I’m hurting you._

 _You’re not,_ he assured her, but then her words registered and he stopped his own progress. _Wait. Am I hurting you?_

She sent him a quick reassurance as she said, _No, it just feels like a muscle is being stretched too far._

 _That’s good. Really, that’s what we’re doing. Stretching our telepathic muscles,_ he said, pressing his way slowly into her mind. He was deeper than he’d ever been before. _Pretty soon, you’ll come across me pushing my way through your mind. It’s like we’re tunneling closer to each other, and eventually we’ll break through and there will be no more barriers between us. Just keep coming towards me, love._

Their breathing turned ragged as they continued burying themselves deeper and deeper.

 _Doctor?_ she asked nervously, feeling the walls of his mind going thin. She felt like if she poked it hard enough, his mind would completely shatter around her.

 _Yep, almost done,_ he assured, pressing his hand against the last barrier separating them again. _Just push through love._

Rose took in a deep breath, and together they pushed against the final fragile piece of resistance.

Her mind suddenly exploded in a hurricane of sensation and emotion. It suddenly felt so much bigger than before as the Doctor’s presence seemed to align into perfect focus without her ever realizing he’d been muddled before.

The Doctor groaned as he felt Rose solidify in his mind, and he was awash completely in her essence. She was so beautiful.

 _So are you,_ she marveled. _So beautiful. Oh, I love you so much, my Doctor._

He was deluged by the pure evidence of that love as he felt everything she was feeling in this moment, and he never felt so cherished in all of his lives. He pressed a series of tender kisses across their bond, trying to convey how happy and grateful he was, and how much he loved her in return.

He shivered in pleasure as Rose returned his telepathic kisses and gave him a physical kiss as well. Their bond exploded with lust and desire, and the Doctor let out a ragged groan that he heard Rose echo. It was so much more intense than either of them were used to, and the feedback loop of pleasure they were creating was nearly overwhelming. Dual pulses of arousal strengthened as the seconds ticked by, until the Doctor slowly eased up on his half of the bond, prompting Rose to do the same.

 _What is it? What’s wrong?_ she asked, wanting to dive back into his mind and finish what they’d started. She was aching to make love to him.

The Doctor caught that desire and shuddered violently as the ache in his gut sharpened. He groaned as Rose shifted on top of him, rubbing him in just the right way, and he fought for self-control.

 _Don’t want a repeat performance of yesterday, do we?_ he panted. He would be beyond mortified if Martha walked in on them now. _Bedroom. I’ve been wanting to make love to you since I woke up and realized you were still with me._

He heard Rose’s whimper and her agreement, and she once again rocked herself against him, sending sparks of pleasure down their spines. His erection throbbed in his pants as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He felt her stiffen above him and grind down on him harder and faster as her presence in his mind deepened and surrounded him completely once more.

He choked out a moan into her shoulder, lost to the pleasure. He grabbed her hips and arched up into her, following the red spark of lust in their bond to completion. He cried out her name into her neck as his mind and body exploded with pleasure, his and hers.

They were lost in the aftershocks for several minutes as their minds quieted and their breathing slowed.

The Doctor giggled into her shoulder, incredulous of what had just happened, but it had still been so perfect. He felt Rose shaking with laughter in his arms, and he joined her in the happiness of their new bond.

 _That was unexpectedly brilliant,_ he said, _but perhaps we can give this another go in the bedroom this time? If Martha comes home early again today, I think I will literally regenerate from embarrassment._

 _Well, we can’t have that,_ Rose mused. He felt her nuzzle his neck and nip lightly, sending renewed bolts of arousal deep into his belly.

He groaned and stood on shaking legs, keeping Rose in his arms.  She tightened her arms and legs around him as he began to walk with her to their bedroom, which they did not vacate for the next several hours. Yesterday, they had celebrated finding each other again. Today, they celebrated being together, not just in body, but in mind and soul.


End file.
